This invention is generally related to dental imaging systems and more particularly to systems that support digital motion video.
Dental imaging systems have been used for a number of years to assist the dentistry professional in recording images of a patient's mouth. Conventional systems include the analog video camera and video cassette recorder (VCR) combination and, more recently, digital still image capture systems. Both systems use a miniature camera known as an intraoral camera that is inserted into the patient's mouth to capture images of teeth and gums. At the same time, the images are being displayed which allows the dentist as well as perhaps the patient to view the treatment areas in a more comfortable manner.
With the analog VCR system, the dentist can create a movie of the patient's mouth. Although the movie is a useful feature both from a diagnosis standpoint and from a patient understanding point of view, dentists often only need to store a still image of the treatment areas for their patient records. The VCR system, however, is not an effective means for providing still images, primarily because of the well-known "shakes" that often appear on the display when the movie is paused. Moreover, a VCR-based system does not provide for easy indexing, access, and manipulation of the still images.
The digital still image capture system has solved some of the problems in the older VCR-based systems by providing digital still images that can be easily stored and manipulated using a personal computer (PC). However, shakes or flutter in the still image are still a problem, particularly because the smallest movement between the intraoral camera (which has a high magnification) and the patient's mouth can cause the scene to change dramatically while a single still image is being captured. The dentist may need to hold the camera very still for several retakes until an acceptable quality still image is captured. This is an undesirable burden. Moreover, although the system can create still images, the creation of movies will require a separate VCR-based system. This dual requirement is a financial and practical burden which has not helped promote dental imaging systems in the past.
In view of the above, there is a need for a novel dental imaging system that can reduce the incidence of shakes in digital still images and still provide a cost effective movie solution.
The use of digital still images has also allowed image manipulation techniques to be used in illustrating the visual effects of cosmetic treatments on a patient's mouth and teeth prior to the treatments actually being performed on the patient. With conventional techniques, the outline of the teeth are manually marked off on the image. However, because of the need to carefully delineate the teeth boundary (so as to obtain a more realistic representation of the treatment to be performed), the manual technique is often too time consuming, thus precluding its performance while the patient waits in the operatory. Therefore, there is also a need for a faster tooth detection technique.